Mitt's Right: Corporations Are People

And without them, America falls apart: Jack and Suzy Welch
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted Jul 16, 2012 12:14 PM CDT
Mitt's Right: Corporations Are People
Former General Electric chairman Jack Welch gestures as he speaks on 04 November 2005 during the 'World Business Forum' in Frankfurt/M.   (Getty Images)

Mitt Romney was derided by many when he claimed that "corporations are people," but he was right, write former General Electric CEO Jack Welch and his wife Suzy in the Wall Street Journal. After all, it's people—not buildings—who hire people, invent new technologies, discover medical breakthroughs. "Buildings don't encourage their employees to mentor inner-city kids in math and science. Buildings don't fund homeless shelters in Boston or health clinics in Rwanda. People do," they write.

Corporations are just a lot of people working together. Yes, many of them are working to make a profit. Yes, sometimes bad people get employed. But most of the people involved in corporations are just "regular people … who want to make a living and want to make a difference," the Welches write. And those who argue that corporations aren't people are really saying, "business is evil," and arguing that capitalism is unfair. But the truth is, capitalism—while not perfect—provides opportunities and motivation, and the movement against it "will destroy America as we know it," the Welches write, "because very few jobs get created in an environment that's outright hostile to business." Full column here. (More corporations stories.)

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